The Jacket

Gulf War veteran Jack Starks returns to Vermont in 1992 suffering from periods of amnesia after a head wound. He meets a young girl named Jackie and her alcoholic mother by a broken-down truck, and he forms a bond with Jackie, giving her his dog tags. He continues on, aided briefly by a passing motorist, before more trouble catches up with him.

A later ride with a stranger ends in a police stop. Starks is found at the roadside near a dead policeman with a gun slug in his body and the murder weapon nearby. He claims another person was present, but his amnesia makes others doubt him, leading to an insanity verdict and his incarceration.

Starks is placed in the psychiatric hospital under the care of Dr. Thomas Becker and his staff. He endures examinations and routine treatments as clinicians remain skeptical of his memories and his supposed guilt.

In December 1992, Becker administers an unauthorized treatment: injections of experimental drugs, confinement in a straitjacket, and placement inside a morgue drawer for sensory deprivation. The extreme procedure awakens a strange mental state that enables time-related experiences.

During the deprivation, Starks travels fifteen years ahead and ends up in a roadside diner where he encounters an older Jackie. She does not recognize him, but she offers shelter for the night, hinting at the strange new reality he inhabits.

In Jackie’s apartment, Starks discovers his own dog tags and is confronted by Jackie, who insists he cannot be Jack Starks because Jack reportedly died on New Year’s Day 1993. The moment deepens the mystery surrounding his time travel and their fragile trust.

Starks and Jackie continue to experience time jumps and discuss how to use the apparent ability to extract him from the hospital and extend his life. Their plan hinges on manipulating the jumps to alter his fate and save him.

On January 1, 1993, Dr. Beth Lorenson helps him briefly exit the hospital to reach Jackie’s childhood home. He leaves a letter with Jackie’s mother warning of a bleak future for her daughter and the dangers she faces.

Back in the hospital, a flashback to the Iraq head wound triggers a surge of bleeding, and Starks convinces two sympathetic doctors to place him back inside the jacket for one last time. He seems to be attempting another leap to alter his fate.

Starks returns to 2007 and finds that Jackie’s life has improved because of the warning letter. She is no longer a waitress but a nurse, and her mother is alive and well, suggesting the future has been altered for the better.

During their 2007 reunion, Jackie and Starks share a car ride toward the hospital where she works, signaling a possible second chance for both of them. She also receives a call from her mother, reinforcing the sense that life continues beyond the hospital’s walls.

As the credits roll, Jackie asks, 'How much time do we have?' and the song We Have All the Time in the World underscores the movie’s time-travel premise. The ending suggests time may be finite, but the lovers have found a way to exist with hope.